Coming Soon to an Arena Near You

          That's right folks, the NHL lockout is finally over! It took 113 days but early Sunday morning news broke everywhere that the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to the framework of a new CBA. 10 years is the length of the new deal, so fans can breathe easily for at least a decade.  the maximum length of player contracts will be seven years with an exception permitting teams to re-sign their own free agents for eight years, and the salary cap for the 2013-14 season was set at $64.3 million with a floor (minimum) of $44 million. There is also a 50-50 revenue split that was agreed upon last month. There was one particular hero who played a huge role in ending the lockout, and that mans' name is Scot Beckenbaugh.

          Beckenbaugh was the federal mediator who joined the sessions back in December and almost got the two sides to agree on a deal, but things turned for the worse, when Fehr announced the meetings went really well and the lockout would be shortly over. Minutes later, Bill Daly and Gary Bettman stood at the podium and announced that was a false statement and they were miles apart, and was disgusted by the way things were going regarding the negotiations. This time however, the mediator sat with the NHLPA on Saturday for about four hours, took a lunch break, and then met with the NHL for around four hours and felt an agreement was close. He was absolutely right! After the individual meetings, Beckenbaugh held a marathon session that lasted close to 16 hours. After the 16th hour, Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr went to the media room side by side and announced to the press the five words fans wanted to hear most "hockey will return this season". This is where it gets fun.

          On Wednesday the Board of Governors ratified the new CBA deal, and announced the season would be 48 games starting on January 19th with training camps opening January 13th. After the BOG meeting, Bettman made his way to the podium and had some deep statements, that showed he really didn't want to cancel any games, and that he was very sorry for all the fans and players' that had to go through this. If you watched the press conference, it looked like Bettman was tearing up when he talked about the fans. I know people blame Bettman for all this mess, but like I said before the real culprit is NHLPA leader Donald Fehr. The blame game is over and we are just nine days away from seeing the puck drop for the first time this year.

          The Flyers will open up the season at the home against their keystone rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins. This game will be an afternoon matinee starting at 3:00PM. Philly beat the Pens in six games last year in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and there was alot of fire burning on both benches. If you want to relive that memory just search "Chris Therien tirade" on YouTube. Paul Holmgren announced he will have a new captain by the start of the season, and everyone's guess is 24 year old Claude Giroux. Giroux would be the second youngest captain behind Mike Richards who got the "C" when he was 23, but now a Stanley Cup champion in Los Angeles. This season is going to be real fun and I can't wait for it to get underway. I look forward to start writing about recaps and rumors in the next 5 months, and watching the Flyers make a run for the Stanley Cup.

-Jimmy "the Fish" Forte (Beat writer for the Sports Goombahs)
-Twitter: @jimmyfort28
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- Thanks for reading!